Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers

The 1977–78 Los Angeles Dodgers came close. Their tough lineup of young and ambitious players squared off with the New York Yankees in consecutive World Series. The Dodgers’ run was a long time in the making after years of struggle and featured many homegrown players who went on to noteworthy or Hall of Fame careers, including Don Sutton, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Steve Yeager. Dodgerland is the story of those memorable teams as Chavez Ravine began to change, baseball was about to enter a new era, and American culture experienced a shift to the “me” era.


Part journalism, part social history, and part straight sportswriting, Dodgerland is told through the lives of four men, each representing different aspects of this L.A. story. Tom Lasorda, the vocal manager of the Dodgers, gives an up-close view of the team’s struggles and triumphs; Tom Fallon, a suburban small-business owner, witnesses the Dodgers’ season and the changes to California's landscape—physical, social, political, and economic; Tom Wolfe, a chronicler of California’s ever-changing culture, views the events of 1977–78 from his Manhattan writer’s loft; and Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’s mayor and the region’s most dominant political figure of the time, gives a glimpse of the wider political, demographic, and economic forces that affected the state at the time.


The boys in blue drew baseball’s focus in those two seasons, but the intertwining narratives tell a larger story about California, late 1970s America, and great promise unrealized.

 
1122966039
Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers

The 1977–78 Los Angeles Dodgers came close. Their tough lineup of young and ambitious players squared off with the New York Yankees in consecutive World Series. The Dodgers’ run was a long time in the making after years of struggle and featured many homegrown players who went on to noteworthy or Hall of Fame careers, including Don Sutton, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Steve Yeager. Dodgerland is the story of those memorable teams as Chavez Ravine began to change, baseball was about to enter a new era, and American culture experienced a shift to the “me” era.


Part journalism, part social history, and part straight sportswriting, Dodgerland is told through the lives of four men, each representing different aspects of this L.A. story. Tom Lasorda, the vocal manager of the Dodgers, gives an up-close view of the team’s struggles and triumphs; Tom Fallon, a suburban small-business owner, witnesses the Dodgers’ season and the changes to California's landscape—physical, social, political, and economic; Tom Wolfe, a chronicler of California’s ever-changing culture, views the events of 1977–78 from his Manhattan writer’s loft; and Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’s mayor and the region’s most dominant political figure of the time, gives a glimpse of the wider political, demographic, and economic forces that affected the state at the time.


The boys in blue drew baseball’s focus in those two seasons, but the intertwining narratives tell a larger story about California, late 1970s America, and great promise unrealized.

 
34.95 In Stock
Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers

Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers

by Michael Fallon
Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers

Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers

by Michael Fallon

Hardcover

$34.95 
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Overview


The 1977–78 Los Angeles Dodgers came close. Their tough lineup of young and ambitious players squared off with the New York Yankees in consecutive World Series. The Dodgers’ run was a long time in the making after years of struggle and featured many homegrown players who went on to noteworthy or Hall of Fame careers, including Don Sutton, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Steve Yeager. Dodgerland is the story of those memorable teams as Chavez Ravine began to change, baseball was about to enter a new era, and American culture experienced a shift to the “me” era.


Part journalism, part social history, and part straight sportswriting, Dodgerland is told through the lives of four men, each representing different aspects of this L.A. story. Tom Lasorda, the vocal manager of the Dodgers, gives an up-close view of the team’s struggles and triumphs; Tom Fallon, a suburban small-business owner, witnesses the Dodgers’ season and the changes to California's landscape—physical, social, political, and economic; Tom Wolfe, a chronicler of California’s ever-changing culture, views the events of 1977–78 from his Manhattan writer’s loft; and Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’s mayor and the region’s most dominant political figure of the time, gives a glimpse of the wider political, demographic, and economic forces that affected the state at the time.


The boys in blue drew baseball’s focus in those two seasons, but the intertwining narratives tell a larger story about California, late 1970s America, and great promise unrealized.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803249400
Publisher: Nebraska
Publication date: 06/01/2016
Pages: 472
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author


Michael Fallon is a writer on arts and culture and a nonprofit manager based in Minnesota. He is the author of Creating the Future: Art and Los Angeles in the 1970s.

Table of Contents





Prologue: Tuesday, October 17, 1978

Part 1. 1977
1. The Days of Bad Baseball
2. Where It Will Always Be 1955
3. Detours along the Dodger Way
4. Great Expectations, Everybody’s Watching You
5. The Land of Golden Dreams
6. We Were All Rookies Again
7. The Game Has Gotten Worse
8. But You Can Never Leave
9. Hollywood Stars and Blue Hard Hats
10. A John Wayne Kind of Adventure
11. Heroes and Villains
12. Dog Days in Dogtown
13. The Right Stuff
14. Gonna Fly Now
15. Klieg Lights, Smoke Bombs, and Three Massive Bombshells

Interlude: Postorbital Remorse; or, There’s Always Next Year

Part 2. 1978
16. Rediscovering Baseball
17. Paradise Defiled
18. The Redemption of Rick Monday
19. Every Day We Pay the Price
20. The Ballad of Glenn and Spunky
21. Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love
22. Untaxing the Golden Cow
23. Nothing Is Clicking Right Now
24. The Grapple in the Apple
25. Is the Force with Us?
26. Clinching
27. The Inevitable Yankee Miracle
28. Chronic Hysteresis; or, Another Yankees-Dodgers Rematch

Afterword: Leaving Babylon

Notes
Index
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